Our First Family Trip to Disney World- Sept. 2019 PTR

kimkwoods

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Hello there! Long time lurker, first time poster. This is my first pre-trip report and I'm not a super great writer, so forgive the shortness of it all.

When we're traveling: September 18-26

Where we're staying: Port Orleans Riverside

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Who is in your party?

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This is us at my daughter's 4th birthday.

  • My name is Kim and I haven’t been to Disney World since high school in 2000. It’s been so long and so much has changed since then, so I’m super excited to go back.
  • My husband, Greg, who hasn’t been to Disney World since he was two years old. He’s excited, but not as into all of it as the rest of the family.
  • My daughter, Ada, who is five years old and has obviously never been to Disney World. She’s very excited and we’ve been watching Disney vlogs for almost a year now preparing.

Ada and I love to watch Tim Tracker, Adam Hattan, Disney in Detail, Charlotte in Wonderland, and Krispy Smore. We've got our ADRs made and I'm working on our Fastpass+ plans. By which I mean I have no idea what to do about it. We're working with a travel agent since I've never planned a Disney vacation. Don't get me wrong, I loooooove planning. This is just a lot of money and so much goes into it that I wanted to make sure we were doing things right. I've been reading a lot of PTRs here and I realize as much as I like to plan I don't know how to plan the Fastpasses! If anybody has any tips I would love to hear them.

I'll add our ADR info in another post as well as a post about some of the things I've gotten for the trip to pack.
 
Joining in. We took our 5 year old girls on our first family trip in March, so I was in a very similar boat 6 months ago.

Once you post your park days and ADRs, I'd be happy to suggest fp ideas.
 
So far our plans (mostly ADRs) are as follows:

Day 1 (September 18):
  • Arrive MCO at 8:35 a.m.
  • Take the Magical Express to Port Orleans Riverside.
  • Drop off our bags
  • We have a 1:00 p.m. reservation for brunch at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary.
  • Head to Magic Kingdom
Day 2 (September 19):
  • Magic Kingdom!
  • 9:30 a.m. breakfast at Be Our Guest
Day 3 (September 20):
  • Epcot
  • 5:00 p.m. reservation at Biergarten Restaurant
Day 4 (September 21):
  • Resort Day
  • Maybe hit up Disney Springs since we're just a boat ride away.
  • 8:45 p.m. reservation at 'Ohana
Day 5 (September 22):
  • Animal Kingdom
  • Will have to leave Animal Kingdom at about 5:30pm
  • 7:00 p.m. reservation at 1900 Park Fare (my girl loooooves Cinderella)
Day 6 (September 23):
  • Epcot
  • 5:00 p.m. reservation at Akershus
Day 7 (September 24):
  • Magic Kingdom
  • 5:00 p.m. reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table
Day 8 (September 25):
  • Hollywood Studios
  • 5:00 p.m. reservation at Sci-Fi Dine-In
Day 9 (September 26):
  • Wherever (may end up at Galaxy's Edge again)
  • Catch Magical Express
  • Depart MCO for IND at 7:30 p.m.
Now, we do have park hopper tickets and wouldn't mind taking advantage of that on some days.
 


Your ADRs look like tons of fun for a 5 year old princess. Are you guys on the dining plan? Just based on the cost of your TS credits, I'd think it would likely make financial sense for your group.

Have you thought about how you want your days to go? Are you thinking open-to-close, midday break, etc? Are you going to try to take advantage of the 6am HS, 7am MK AK EEMH running during your trip? For our trip, I wanted to be able to see the night shows at each park, which were after my girls' bedtime. So, I picked days that we would start touring a little later in the day in the hopes that they'd be able to make it to fireworks and then picked other days where we'd rope drop but knew we would be leaving before park close.

Also, do you think your daughter will measure 44" in shoes by September? That's going to be a big impact on your day in AK because FoP and EE both have that height requirement. Whether you're doing them as a family, using rider swap on them, or skipping them entirely is going to be important in deciding how to book FPs there.
 
Are you guys on the dining plan?

We are on the dining plan! I've used a dining plan calculator to make sure we make the best of it.

Have you thought about how you want your days to go? Are you thinking open-to-close, midday break, etc? Are you going to try to take advantage of the 6am HS, 7am MK AK EEMH running during your trip?

This is the part I'm not completely sure about. I feel like most days we should probably get Ada to bed at a reasonable hour, so she can handle the days. She tends to not be able to handle let downs as well if she's tired as I'm sure you're familiar with. ;) I want to see Happily Ever After, IllumiNations, and we have tickets to MNSSHP on the 24th. I think I forgot to put that on there. :/ I'm thinking for my husbands sake we will take an afternoon break on a few days.

Also, do you think your daughter will measure 44" in shoes by September?

She's not super into coasters and the only one she's interested in is Slinky Dog and I don't ride coasters either. I'm super fun I know, I'm more interested in the slower attractions. I know for sure I won't fit on FoP, but I really want my husband to do it, so we'll likely try for a fastpass for that. There are three coasters I know he can do single rider on, so we're banking on that.
 
This is the part I'm not completely sure about. I feel like most days we should probably get Ada to bed at a reasonable hour, so she can handle the days. She tends to not be able to handle let downs as well if she's tired as I'm sure you're familiar with. ;) I want to see Happily Ever After, IllumiNations, and we have tickets to MNSSHP on the 24th. I think I forgot to put that on there. :/ I'm thinking for my husbands sake we will take an afternoon break on a few days.

The sleep schedule (and how much to possibly mess it up) is the hardest part of planning for this age. We opted to try to go into the parks a little later on the nights that we were trying to keep them up for the shows. They didn't sleep in AT ALL during the trip, but they were at least laying on a bed watching Dis Jr instead of wearing themselves out in the parks.

The extra complication you'll have is the weather. The heat and humidity were never overwhelming during our Feb/March trip, but September is a whole other ballgame. If you guys are touring in the morning, do you think she'll nap for you at all in the afternoon? Then, you could try heading our for something at night. My girls never nap, even when they're exhausted, so we didn't plan our days that way.

Do you have park admission on your MNSSHP day or is it just the party ticket. That definitely impacts FP planning.

She's not super into coasters and the only one she's interested in is Slinky Dog and I don't ride coasters either. I'm super fun I know, I'm more interested in the slower attractions. I know for sure I won't fit on FoP, but I really want my husband to do it, so we'll likely try for a fastpass for that. There are three coasters I know he can do single rider on, so we're banking on that.

So, you're counting Test Track as a coaster, then? I know that's the third single rider line, along with Everest and Rockin' Rollercoaster.

Not needing to FP coasters really opens things up for you all. What about the screen based motion simulators (Soarin', Mission: Space, Star Tours)? Are you going to want to tackle those as a family?
 


If you guys are touring in the morning, do you think she'll nap for you at all in the afternoon?

I highly doubt she will nap at all. She sounds like your girls. Won't even sleep when she's exhausted. I do think an afternoon out of the parks just relaxing would help her though, even if she doesn't nap.

So, you're counting Test Track as a coaster, then? I know that's the third single rider line, along with Everest and Rockin' Rollercoaster.

Yeah, I'm counting that as a coaster. I seriously have the lowest threshold for thrill rides. Even the drop on Pirates has me nervous. :/

Not needing to FP coasters really opens things up for you all. What about the screen based motion simulators (Soarin', Mission: Space, Star Tours)? Are you going to want to tackle those as a family?

I think Ada and I would be fine on Soarin' and I slightly remember doing Star Tours back in high school. I remember enjoying it as I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I'll probably skip Mission: Space I don't know why I just don't think I'd do well with it.
 
This post is probably mostly just fun for me, but I wanted to be able to post somewhere about the odds and ends that I have gotten for the trip. I personally love watching packing videos on Youtube and since I don't plan on vlogging at all this is my outlet for these types of things. Consider this a trip preparation haul. :P

The first thing I got was this awesome suitcase from Ful luggage. I was able to snag it for 30% off during a Memorial Day sale!

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So many pockets!



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A cute, useful foldable duffel bag just in case.


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Packing cubes to make packing easier.


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Wet wipes and rain ponchos.


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A USB rechargeable fan.


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USB external battery charger


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Autograph book


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Baby Bum (Sun Bum brand) sunscreen.


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We got our MagicBands early because I bought a couple of custom bands for Ada and I.
 
We will be there the same week as you! I appreciate the suggestions for Disney Vlogs to check out, my daughters have been before but will be almost 3 and 5 on this trip and are much more interested in helping me plan this time around. I'm following along as we are finalizing our plans ahead of FP day coming up quickly!
 
We will be there the same week as you! I appreciate the suggestions for Disney Vlogs to check out, my daughters have been before but will be almost 3 and 5 on this trip and are much more interested in helping me plan this time around. I'm following along as we are finalizing our plans ahead of FP day coming up quickly!

Awesome! Thank you for following along!
 
Alright, I am sooooo behind on the PTR. Life has just been going right along and I've been wrapped up in it. My little one started kindergarten last week, so it's been an adjustment for our household.

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Fastpass day has came and went and we are all set with ours. I have a Disney travel agent, so I didn't have to get up early in the morning to do it myself, which works out well because I am not a morning person. We had about an hour and half conversation a couple of days before and hammered out all the details for the Fastpasses. I have a fairly detailed overview of the first day, but after that it gets a little more vague.

Day 1- Wednesday, September 18- Arrival/Magic Kingdom
  • 2:30 a.m.- Wake up
  • 4:00 a.m.- Be at the airport
  • 6:15 a.m.- Flight
  • 8:30 a.m.- Arrive at MCO
  • Take the Magical Express to Port Orleans Riverside
  • Drop our bags at bell services
  • Pick up stroller and ECV
  • Head to lunch reservation at Chef Mickey's
  • 1:00 p.m.- Lunch at Chef Mickey's
  • After lunch head to Magic Kingdom
  • Check out wait times, explore, get photopass pictures, etc.
  • 4:15 p.m.- 5:15 p.m.- FP+ Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
  • Depending on wait times ride Space Mountain (husband) and/or People Mover
  • 5:15 p.m.- 6:15 p.m.- FP+ Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
  • Depending on wait time Tomorrowland Speedway
  • 6:30 p.m.- 7:30 p.m.- FP+ Barnstormer (hopefully my daughter will ride, she's pretty adamant right now that she won't)
  • Quick Service Dinner
  • Call it an early night since we got up so early and will be back at MK the next morning for RD
Day 2- Thursday, September 19- Magic Kingdom
  • 7:00 a.m.- EMH
  • Check wait times
  • 8:55 a.m.- Let the Magic Begin
  • 9:40 a.m.- Be Our Guest Breakfast
  • 10:30 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.- Enchanted Tales with Belle
  • 11:45 a.m.- 12:45 p.m.- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
  • Lunch
  • 1:20 p.m.- 2:20 p.m.- Peter Pan's Flight
  • Check FP+
  • Maybe break at the resort
  • Come back for evening for dinner
  • Check wait times
  • 9:00 p.m.- Happily Ever After
Day 3- Friday, September 20- Epcot
  • Breakfast at Resort
  • 9:00 a.m.- Epcot opens
  • Rope Drop Soarin' and maybe Test Track
  • 10:25 a.m.- 11:25 a.m.- The Seas with Nemo and Friends
  • 11:25 a.m.- 12:25 p.m.- Spaceship Earth
  • Lunch
  • 2:05 p.m.- 3:05 p.m.- Frozen Ever After
  • Explore World Showcase
  • 5:00 p.m.- Dinner at Biergarten
  • Chill at Resort after dinner?
Day 4- Saturday, September 21- Resort Day
  • We have this as a pretty chill resort day and we may hit up Disney Springs. We did make FP+ for this day just in case we wanted to go to the park.
  • 4:05 p.m.- 5:05 p.m.- Tomorrowland Speedway
  • Snack
  • 5:35 p.m.- 6:35 p.m.- Dumbo
  • 6:35 p.m.- 7:35 p.m.- Haunted Mansion
  • 8:45 p.m.- 'Ohana Dinner
Day 5- Sunday, September 22- Animal Kingdom
  • Late Start after a late 'Ohana Dinner
  • 10:10 a.m.- 11:10 a.m.- Kilimanjaro Safaris
  • 11:15 a.m.- 12:15 p.m.- Flight of Passage (Greg and Ada)
  • 11:15 a.m.- 12:15 p.m.- Na'Vi River Journey (Kim)
  • Lunch
  • Check other FP+ times and explore
  • 7:00 p.m.- 1900 Park Fare dinner
Day 6- Monday, September 23- Hollywood Studios/Epcot
  • 6:00 a.m.- Rope drop Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run
  • Breakfast
  • Check out Galaxy's Edge
  • Lunch
  • 12:00 p.m.- 12:15 p.m.- Frozen Sing-a-long
  • 1:05 p.m.- 2:05 p.m.- Toy Story Mania
  • 2:40 p.m.- 3:40 p.m.- Star Tours
  • Head to Epcot
  • 5:00 p.m.- Akershus Dinner
  • Check for FP+ times and explore
  • 9:00 p.m.- IllumiNations
Day 7- Tuesday, September 24- Magic Kingdom
  • Later start- Breakfast at the resort
  • 9:55 a.m.- 10:55 a.m.- Pirates
  • 10:55 a.m.- 11:55 a.m.- Jungle Cruise
  • 12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m.- Haunted Mansion
  • Lunch
  • 2:00 p.m.- Festival of Fantasy Parade
  • Maybe some shopping
  • 4:00 p.m.- Cinderella's Royal Table Dinner
  • Return to resort for a bit
  • 7:00 p.m.- Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
Day 8- Wednesday, September 25- Hollywood Studios
  • Breakfast at Resort
  • Maybe check out Galaxy's Edge again
  • 10:20 a.m.- 11:20 a.m.- Slinky Dog Dash
  • 11:30 a.m.- 11:45 a.m.- Indiana Jones
  • Lunch
  • 12:50 p.m.- Reservation at Droid Depot (just got this while I was typing this up)
  • 1:30 p.m.- 1:50 p.m.- Beauty and the Beast Live
  • Check FP+ in app, shop/explore
  • 5:00 p.m.- Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre Dinner
  • 8:00 p.m.- Fantasmic!
Day 9- Thursday, September 26- Magic Kingdom/Departure Day
  • Breakfast at Resort
  • 10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m.- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  • 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.- Meet Rapunzel and Tiana
  • Lunch
  • 12:20 p.m.- 1:20 p.m.- Meet Mickey and Minnie
  • ~3:00 p.m.- "Tragical" Express
  • 7:20 p.m.- Flight Departs
  • 10:00 p.m.- Arrive IND

Those are our tentative plans, as always I'm flexible and willing to change things if needed. I don't have down to the minute scheduled, but I'm pretty happy with what we have!
 
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Joining in! Our trips overlap by a little bit but we won't be at the same parks, at least for the mornings. We also have the hopper so we might be at night! I love all the FPs you selected! I think your daughter will have a great time!
 
Your plans look great! Our trips overlap, and I think even a park day or two do as well! Your daughter will have so much fun, great memories for the whole family.
 
Joining in! Our trips overlap by a little bit but we won't be at the same parks, at least for the mornings. We also have the hopper so we might be at night! I love all the FPs you selected! I think your daughter will have a great time!

Thanks for joining in! Hope you have a great trip!!!
 
Your plans look great! Our Epcot day (9/20) overlaps with you :) We have a FP for The Seas just an hour before you, and the same window for Spaceship Earth! (ours is for 11:30am). We're excited to check out the Food & Wine festival that day!
 

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